Friday, December 05, 2008

What do they want?

My friend David Neiwert has a nice little summary of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy crowd up at Crooks and Liars. Naturally, this conspiracy theory has been embraced by the white supremacist/nationalist crowd. Several groups treated the election as a big recruiting telethon, but, now that the black guy actually has been elected, the fun is over and they're scared. The citizenship silliness is their last hope of keeping him from becoming the most powerful person in the United States after Warren Buffet, Oprah, and the judges on "American Idol". There is a strong overlap between the anti-immigrant, white supremacist, militia, and anti-tax crowds. Bob Schultz, one of the primary promoters of this conspiracy theory, is, in fact, an anti-tax nut whose main business has been selling his schemes to gullible white supremacists and militia members. By championing this cause he increases his visibility among his client base.

It's easy to understand Schultz's possible mercenary motives and to understand the fear of the out-and-out racists, but what about the others? This wacky theory has been picked up by others who are not especially racist. What do they expect to happen if they're right and some court goes along with them? Declaring Obama ineligible to become president won't make McCain the next president. We don't vote for presidential candidates; we vote for the electors who choose the president. If Obama is ineligible the Democratic electors will simply choose another Democrat to be president--probably Biden, but there is nothing that would prevent them from picking Hillary Clinton or me for that matter (though I admit I'd be something a dark horse candidate). It strikes me that this is just a tantrum on the part of some wingnuts. They're going to kick and scream and hold their breaths until they turn blue to stop the country from turning blue. They need to grow up.